Smokeless tobaccos are products that are orally consumed without subjecting the product to combustion. These products are manufactured in a variety of forms including chewing tobacco, dry snuff and moist snuff. Generally, these types of products are made as follows with the steps being in no particular order: cutting or grinding the tobacco into a suitable size; dipping or spraying the tobacco with a casing solution; partially drying the cased tobacco; holding the tobacco in containers for a period of time; and packaging it.
Smokeless tobacco products may not have organoleptic properties that appeal to all consumers. In order to provide a variety of products with different taste characteristics, chewing tobacco and snuffs are often treated with a variety of flavors. However, the addition of flavors may not be appealing to certain consumers. Addition of flavors almost always requires other processing steps when producing the smokeless tobacco products. Accordingly, a need exists for a process that can produce a smokeless tobacco-based product that can provide oral tobacco satisfaction while altering, diminishing or eliminating the less desired taste characteristics sometimes associated therewith. Tobacco is further described in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/981,948 for “Nicotiana Compositions” and U.S. Ser. No. 10/982,248 for “Tobacco Compositions”, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.